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Apple creates new managing director role for China

The move is part of Apple's efforts to bolster its footprint in China, the world's biggest phone market.

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Zoey Chong Reporter
Zoey is CNET's Asia News Reporter based in Singapore. She prefers variety to monotony and owns an Android mobile device, a Windows PC and Apple's MacBook Pro all at the same time. Outside of the office, she can be found binging on Korean variety shows, if not chilling out with a book at a café recommended by a friend.
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Zoey Chong
2 min read
isabel-ge-mahe-managing-director-china

Meet Isabel Ge Mahe, Apple's first managing director for Greater China.

 Apple

Apple wants China to know it's serious about their relationship.

So on Wednesday, the iPhone maker announced the appointment of Isabel Ge Mahe as its managing director for Greater China, a new role for the region.

Ge will be based in Shanghai, where she'll begin working "later this summer," said Apple. She will lead and coordinate teams across China, having previously worked with local telecom firms to develop iPhone and iPad features specifically for the country.

The newly created role is Apple's latest move at advancing its efforts in China to localize services and deal with notoriously difficult Chinese laws. The company had previously run into trouble with local laws, where it was told to shut down its iTunes Movies and iBooks services less than a year after operations began.

China is one of Apple's most important markets at about 20 percent of its overall sales, but the company's had some financial struggles there of late. Its sales in Greater China tumbled 14 percent from the previous year to $10.7 billion in its most recent quarter, echoing a trend seen by Apple over the past year. 

Despite declining sales, Apple's CEO Tim Cook said the company remains "very enthusiastic" about the country. The tech giant has been demonstrating this enthusiasm by setting up its first data centre in China to appease new laws that require foreign companies to keep data in the country, and introducing promotions to entice more Chinese to use Apple Pay . 

Apple declined to comment further on the matter.

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